


Kitten

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Canon Era, Domestic, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-29 04:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Jack was planning on bringing home a dog.





	Kitten

David knelt down next to the kitchen table. A pair of little green eyes peered out at him from under it, and a little black tail went swoosh swoosh swoosh.

“Why Jack,” was all that he could think of to say. He reached out to touch the kitten, and it pounced upon his outstretched palm, playfully, its claws retracted so that it was all softness, and David had to bite the inside of his cheek to stay firm and unsmiling.

“I was planning to get a dog,” Jack admitted.

“What?!” David asked sharply.

“Who. Where? How!” Jack finished shrilly, in a reasonable approximation of David’s voice. This time all the adorable kittens in the world couldn’t keep David from glaring up at him. “Look,” Jack said. “Just finishing up the interrogation so you don’t have to.”

“You didn’t talk to me about that,” David said, careful to make it a statement, not a question, careful to keep his tone flat.

“I knew you was gonna say no,” Jack admitted.

David took a slow breath. He didn’t want to shout at Jack. He’d been a mess lately, hardly keeping himself together, and David knew that screaming at him wouldn’t help anything. That didn’t mean that David was going to let him off easily, but at the very least, he resolved not to scream.

“If you knew I was going to say no, don’t you think you shouldn’t have set out to get dog? Did it even occur to you that it might not be a good idea? We don’t have room in this apartment for a dog. We’ve barely got room for ourselves. Besides, dogs smell, and they chew on everything.”

“Yeah, well they’s also happy to see you every time you get home. And it ain’t like they care what you done with your day, they just want to be around you.”

“So you’ve been doing things with your day you think I might not like?”

“David!”

“I’m happy to see you when you come home,” David said, frowning.

“You ain’t a dog,” Jack said. “I mean, look, I don’t want you to be. I want you to be David, and my dog to be a dog. Maybe I just needed a dog, alright?”

“That still doesn’t explain the kitten,” David pointed out.

Jack let out a heavy, angry breath. “It reached out through the bars of its cage and grabbed onto my coat when I was going past. Like it was was asking for help. And I thought, it’s just a little kid, you know? Didn’t do it no good to be stuck in a cage all day.”

David sighed. He picked up the cat, and stood, so he was face to face with Jack. The kitten purred against his chest.

“Besides,” Jack added. “I remembered that you like cats.”

“I do.” Left unsaid was the fact that David still didn’t think Jack should have gotten one. He had another card to play. “But dogs don’t. We can’t keep both.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Cats are manipulative bastards,” he muttered.

David handed the purring kitten over to Jack. It meowed once, sleepily, and then settled itself in the crook of his arm.


End file.
